Brendan Sokaluk, the man accused of lighting a fire that killed 21 people in Victoria may have been acting out after being jilted by his <strike>possibly firefighter</strike> ex, The Inquisitr has learned.

In our earlier post, we noted that Sokaluk was bitter about an ex called [name redacted], writing “my interest are to enjoy life to the fallest [sic] and not with alexandra because she roots behind your back and lies a lot” on his MySpace page.

With thanks to @cravenjade on Twitter, we can reveal that person may be a volunteer bush firefighter, although we don’t yet have her last name.

Alexandra is 31, lives in the Gippsland area, and works in age care as her full time position.

Notably, her profile picture, and other pictures on her MySpace page show her in a CFA (Country Fire Authority) uniform.

Her friends list includes other fire fighters, although disturbingly one set of pictures is made under the title of “pyro;” we’re not sure if that’s the name of the dog pictured, or another reference.

If anyone knows anything more, let us know. There’s two possibilities here: Sokaluk lit the fire to get back at her,<strike> given she may have been on call with the CFA at the time </strike> or possibly she has a fire obsession as well (birds of a feather).

Update: following some concern we’ve redacted the name and face in this post.

Update 2: media reports today (which I’d note name her, and show her picture) suggest that she wasn’t a firefighter but raised money for the CFA, and was friendly with CFA volunteers, notably men. Could she have had a relatioship perhaps? or did Sokaluk think there was a relationship?

Did Bushfire arsonist Brendan Sokaluk kill 21 people to get back at girlfriend? is a post from: The Inquisitr

The suspected arsonist behind one of the fires that killed hundreds in Victoria, Australia has been named.

Brendan Sokaluk, 39 of Churchill was named after a Victorian court lifted a suppression order allowing him to be named by the media.

Sokaluk has been charged with arson causing death, lighting a bushfire and one count of possessing child pornography. The Churchill fire he is alleged to have started burnt out more than 30,000 hectares and killed 21 people.

Sokaluk maintains a MySpace page that given what he has done is spooky.

Sokaluk was clearly bitter on a couple of fronts. A failed relationship with someone called Alexandra resulted in a profile comment of “my interest are to enjoy life to the fallest [sic] and not with alexandra because she roots behind your back and lies a lot.”

The page is scattered with appalling spelling, suggesting that Sokaluk may have been illiterate, or had suffered a learning disability.

In the hero section, Sokaluk writes ” my heroe [sic] is mother earth with out her we all would be dead.”

His MySpace profile also suggests that Sokaluk has an affiliation to a US religious group by the name of “The Truth of God,” a group known to hold extreme views against women clergy and gay people.

Sokaluk worked for his own company, Brendan Scrap Metal Pickup, in Hazelwood, Victoria.

Due to a court suppression order in Victoria that may or may not apply to this site (I’m in Victoria, but the site isn’t hosted in Australia), we’ve decided to go on the side of caution and not publish his picture, or his home address per the restrictions given by the court, however you can view his picture on his MySpace page here.

Update: see also Did Bushfire arsonist Brendan Sokaluk kill 21 people to get back at firefighter girlfriend?

Bushfire arsonist Brendan Sokaluk worships mother earth on spooky MySpace page is a post from: The Inquisitr

Some Christians in Australia are saying the deaths of now nearly 200 people (and possibly more) in the Victorian bushfires was an act of god in retaliation for the state’s abortion laws.

The Victorian Parliament legalized abortion last year, although like all parts of Australia, abortion has been practiced for years, state funded, even where it was technically illegal.

According to Catch the Fire Ministries (CTFM), a part of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God group, leader Pastor Danny Nalliah said he was not surprised by the bush fires due to a dream he had last October relating to consequences of the abortion laws passed in Victoria.

From the release:

He said these bushfires have come as a result of the incendiary abortion laws which decimate life in the womb.

Yesterday (Monday 9th February 2009), the front page of the Herald Sun newspaper reported “The Darkest hour for Victoria”.

A few months ago the news media should have reported “The darkest hour for the unborn” but unfortunately the “Decriminalization of Abortion bill” went through parliament and was passed, thus making many people call Victoria “the baby killing state of Australia”, Mr Nalliah said.

He said on November 7th last year we had sent out an email to our national network and a posting on our website carried an urgent post titled, ‘STOP PRESS. URGENT PRAYER NEEDED REGARDING AUSTRALIA, ESPECIALLY THE STATE OF VICTORIA’ following a dream he had on the 21st of October 2008, which he shared with his team on 22nd October.

Following is an excerpt from the dream which was published in the article:

“In my dream I saw fire everywhere with flames burning very high and uncontrollably. With this I woke up from my dream with the interpretation as the following words came to me in a flash from the Spirit of God. That His conditional protection has been removed from the nation of Australia, in particular Victoria, for approving the slaughter of innocent children in the womb.”

Nalliah was the center of controversy in Australia when he was prosecuted in 2004 under Victoria’s religious vilification laws for attacking Muslims. He is also a previous Senate Candidate for the Family First Party, running second on the ticket in 2004.

(release via ABC)

Christians say Victorian Bushfires Gods revenge for legalized abortion is a post from: The Inquisitr

As Victoria woke this morning, the bushfire news continued to get worse. The official death toll for the bushfires now stands at 108 (at the time of writing) and is expected to rise further today. Fires are still threatening homes, water and power supplies, and despite cooler weather and some rain yesterday, dozens of fires remain out of control.

Social media and the internet, perhaps for the first time in a large way in Australia, played a big role in how the latest news from the front was spread, comparable perhaps only to radio. Broadcast television here completely failed yesterday, with stations really only picking up the news last night once they realized how bad it was, and while some newspapers online have kept relatively up-to-date, there has usually be a delay between the news breaking, and it being posted.

Twitter
Unsurprisingly perhaps, but Victoria bushfire related tags were among the top trending topics on Twitter Sunday Australian time. The Australian twitter community, particularly in Victoria have been quick in sharing the latest news, where to make donations, and all other relevant information. Surprisingly perhaps, that some of the best efforts on Twitter came from a broadcast radio station.

774Melbourne
ABC Local Radio Melbourne has provided the latest news from the event nearly as quickly as it was broadcast on air (and ABC Radio has led in terms of the latest information). I don’t know who’s running the account, but they deserve universal praise.

CFA_Updates
Not an official CFA (Country Fire Authority) account, but a user pulling data from the CFA site, including latest fire warnings, closures, and vital information. Double value given that the CFA site itself failed repeatedly yesterday under a volume of traffic. The account also links to breaking news on other sites.

Sunriseon7
The Twitter account for Channel 7′s breakfast program was a little late in getting involved, but has been filling in some of the gaps missed by the ABC. Interesting to see a television program attempt to use Twitter in this way, even if most of their tweets linked back to their own content.

Google Maps mashups

Both News Ltd (Herald Sun/ News.com.au) and Fairfax (The Age) added Google Maps mashups for fire locations and reported deaths Sunday.

Here’s the Fairfax mashup, which like all Google Maps can be embedded as well

Flickr/ user generated content

Fire pictures started appearing on Flickr Saturday, and continued to be added do as the weekend progressed. Some incredible shots from affected areas, and those close to the front.

Not all of them are in this pool, but here’s some of them

Mainstream media outlets in Australia and abroad asked for, and ran reader submitted photos including Fairfax, News Ltd, and even CNN and the BBC.

Streaming radio

Even radio received a web treatment, with reports on Twitter of people tuning in to the ABC Melbourne stream for the latest. I did for a while (I’m in Melbourne, but we only have one radio in one room), and to be quite honest I had to turn it off it was that distressing.

Blogs/ RSS

Blogs haven’t played a huge role, however ABC Melbourne did use their blog platform Sunday as a way to gather donations and commitments of help well before any official appeals from the Salvation Army or Red Cross had begun. Pages and pages of people wanting to help, and people looking for loved ones.

The RSS feed from the CFA site helped enable the CFA Twitter channel (mentioned above) and should be counted in the mix.

Conclusion

Much of the social media used during this disaster has been spontaneous and user generated, and it has played an important role in sharing information about the disaster.

There will no doubt be an inquiry into the fires, and a lot of looking back at what could have been done differently in the coming months.

Better communication may not have saved more lives; the stories of how residents in many country towns had little warning may have been more due to the speed of the fire than communications issues, but knowledge of any sort is power.

The CFA has already slowly entered the information age; along with the RSS feed, they also have a YouTube channel and a couple of station blogs, the next step is to take that data out to more people.

We will never know if social media may have saved lives during this disaster, but if only one person received information from the web, or from Twitter, directly or via someone they knew, and that allowed them to escape in time, then that is validation in itself about the role the space can play.

Our hearts go out for the victims of this disaster. If you can spare even a small payment, the Red Cross is taking donations here.

Disclosure: my wife until recently worked in Emergency Services in Victoria, and part of her role was related to media strategy, including the use of social media.

The role of social media and the internet in the Victorian Bushfires is a post from: The Inquisitr